What Once Was Lost
by Maersikai
Summary: The Earth never bore her children into the stars before they cast themselves down. The Council had no clue of the Reaper threat until they attacked. Now on the run, the Council races must flee from the ever-expanding wave of Reapers. In a last-ditch effort to get someone out of reach of the enemy, they send a Vagrant fleet far from their once civilized space to start new.
1. What Once Was Lost

What Once Was Lost...

 **Author's Notes: So I've had this idea bouncing around in my head for a while now during the time I've been working on The Sum Is Greater Than its Parts. It's more or less a Humanity Fuck Yeah! kinda story but with a spin on it that I thought would make it more interesting rather than the usual curbstomp. I will freely admit that I've taken cues from different SciFi books that I've loved over the years. Most notably will be a certain Arthur C. Clarke book. You'll know it when you see it and there's no way in hell that I'd ever be able to say that it was my idea. More of my way of honoring the man's contribution to SciFi. What better way to be remembered than to have inspired generations of writers?**

 **This is an Alternate Universe story, should be obvious from the description though. We'll see how it works out.**

 **But anyway, without further stalling, I present to you my next work in progress! (I don't own Mass Effect, I'd love to but I don't)**

* * *

Humanity was extinct.

The blue-green world that had given birth the the human race suffered the pain, destruction, and wholesale use of her resources for tens of thousands of years before the Human race died. On the cusp of the most prosperous era the world would ever see, they struck themselves down. The most peculiar fact about the extinction was not the they were extinct. Many had been quoted as saying that was an inevitability. Rather it was how they went extinct. Not in prolonged bouts of fire and blood but rather a sudden twitch of clinical violence and then, the Humans were no more.

At the beginning decades of the twenty first century the combined efforts of millions of people across Earth brought forth advances in technology never before thought possible. Computers and software capable of simulating physical reality at near perfect fidelity heralded a boom of scientific understanding, prosperity, and of course the most constant part of human nature - war. While the violence that humanity had been raised alongside almost extinguished the race and nearly left the Earth a cinder, a solution was found. At once almost the entirety of the human race was modified through the use of nano-scale manipulators, cellbots. Not only removing the physiological markers that brought about widespread human violence but the evidence of the genetic markers for violence was removed from our genome. The human mind had finally excised violence from human nature in a matter of days.

As so many other times in human history however, it was not destined to last. On the edge of a golden age, the last vestige of the human condition reached out and pulled humanity into the halls of extinction with such speed and precision, nothing was left to mark their passing.

The extinction was that of the human physical form and all signs of humanity on Earth. Orchestrated by the lead researcher on the cellbots programming team designed to save humanity, the scientists instead chose his version of transcendence. Using the cellbots, Dr. Keil Travers programed the machines and set them to activate after the originally intended unifying event. His physical form was the first to be uploaded as he prepared his digital world and days later, the rest of humanity in a matter of minutes. 8.7 billion startled humans had moments to register that their world was being dismantled before the controlled replication of the cellbots uploaded their physical forms and then removed all but the ancient ruins of humanity from the Earth.

One week, one terrible week for the human race before the Earth was left, scoured of the trace of its most promising and destructive children. But instead of bearing her children to the stars, the planet bore her children deep in layers of the planet itself. Free from the constraints of the flesh and its limitations, Dr Travers held humanity hostage in a computing substrate miles below the surface. Where the geothermal energy powered the simulation the Doctor ran, undisturbed until another great cycle of the galaxy neared its completion.

What would rise from the Earth would not be humanity, it would be the Uploaded, Transcendent Sapiens.

* * *

2018 - The work of the major computing corporations usher a breakthrough in computing, nano-scale computational devices smaller than the nucleus of a human cell. While a misnomer, they were dubbed "Cellbots" by the media and the name stuck. Originally limited in use, the advancement in the material sciences allowed for a single drop of water to house enough of these devices to perform at the equivalent speed and power of a high-end desktop computer of the day.

2021 - The proliferation of cellbots allowed for exponentially greater advances in every field of science. Changes to the human form prompts backlash in the governing bodies of the world and safeguards are (ineffectively) programmed into the technologies to limit "the corruption of the human form". Proponents of the Singularity are outraged.

2024 - An increasingly fluid political and socio-economic world prompts acts of violence and cyber-crime - now seen in the same arena as physical violence due to the level that technology is integrated into human life - to ignite across the globe. With the borders of nations becoming increasingly irrelevant, there is no geographical limit to the violence.

2030 - After almost six years of violence and increasingly useless and antiquated governing bodies, the leading corporation of the day, Google, begins a program with the goal of removing a the violent impulse from humanity. It is dubbed Project Monolith.

2033 - A team of researchers across thousands of corporate locations coordinate their efforts to discover the sequence of genomes and structures in the brain that predispose humans to violence. The lead researcher, Dr. Keil Travers, teams up with a team working towards industrial-scale nanotechnological construction via the cellbots to develop a viable means to 'edit' humanity.

2038 - The goals of Project Monolith are proven to be demonstrably feasible after the doomed Mars One colony is stabilized. A date is set for the widespread deployment around the globe.

2040 - January 1st - Confusion grips the world as 3 meter high, .75 meter wide, and .2 meter thick black Monoliths appear to sprout from the ground across the globe in preparation for the fruition of Project Monolith. A group of hacktivists uncover the reason behind the structures quickly and zero-in on Dr. Travers. Unbeknownst to the project leaders, the group convinces Dr. Travers to change the nanobots. Unbeknownst to the hacktivist group, Dr. Travers has his own plans.

2040 - February 27th - Dr. Travers gambles that the programming he had done was enough to ensure he is uploaded correctly. He is the first uploaded human as the swarm of nanobots replicate using his physical form as raw material. The compiling of his form begins with no set end date.

2040 - February 29th - The Monoliths are deployed, the monoliths disperse throughout the population as a fog and in hours, every human on the planet has come in contact with the Monolith cellbots.

2040 - August 1st - Changes to the cells and minds of every human on the planet is declared complete. The aggression seen in previous generations is declared over and attention is devoted to bettering humanity and the planet with an eye to the stars. Dr. Travers awakens in a simulated world, able to interface at the most basic level with all nanotech, he goes about loading new instructions into the global network of cellbots.

2040 - August 3rd - The Uploading begins as at the prompting of Dr. Travers as the entirety of humanity is uploaded in an afternoon. The process of dismantling the entirety of human structures on the planet begins.

2073 - With the exception of the ancient ruins of the world, all trace of humanity is removed from the face of the planet and the final step in plan is finished. The only evidence on Earth that humanity advanced beyond the iron age exists four to thirteen kilometers below the surface as a computational substrate formed by the nanobots. Dr. Travers sets out after research into every facet of the physical world, no longer being constrained in any way in his virtual world.

* * *

2183 - The Council races are attacked by the Reapers, led by the rogue Spectre Saren and his army of Geth. The Mass Relays are rendered inert after the Citadel is overrun by Sovereign. The Cycle begins.

2184 - Most major military attempts against the Reapers are met with destruction as the homeworlds of each race fall. Outlying colonies struggle to maintain basic services.

2186 - 70% of the pre-reaper population is dead or processed by the Reaper armies. The remaining 30% attempt to hide. A last-ditch attempt to run from the Reapers is coordinated. Groups from the Asari, Salarians, Turians, Batarian remnants, and Quarians put together a generational fleet of 40 ships with heavy support from the Migrant Fleet crewed by 12,000 of each race least likely to be indoctrinated. The newly christened Vagrant fleet sets out towards an assumed uninhabited section of space.

2190 - After years of draining resources, static discharge problems, fuel scarcity, and general stress-induced animosity the fleet stumbles upon a system seemingly lacking in Element Zero with no apparent relays in a sane range through FTL. The eight-planet system has an appropriate spread of gas giants and rocky planets. Four of each. After a scan of the system, an uninhabited garden world is discovered and the nearly crippled fleet enters an orbit around the third planet to begin colonization.

* * *

 **Yep, that's it for now. I have another chapter being written but I just want to put this out there since I'm still elbows deep in my first story and I really just want to get this to stop buzzing around in my head. That being said, I'd love for reviews on this if you have suggestions or anything like that. Also, I don't own Google. I just wanted to throw them out there. Though it might be funny to put Google as the group that works hardest to save humanity, after all who's going to Google anything if everyone is dead?**


	2. Can Again Be Found

May One Day Be Found

 **Whoo! So another chapter, I'm using this story as a stepping stone to get me out of the slump am in writing my first story. In all likeliness there might be one more chapter in this story before the next one in my main story comes out. So yeah, *cheers***

 **This one goes into the meat of this story, starting it off setting the stage for the next three or four chapters. I know the whole "post-reaper council" thing has been done before but a lot less times than a pre-ME1 AU human story. This is still a side project so if it fails to meet some expectations, sorry. I'd like to flesh it out more but I don't have as vibrant a world built in my mind for this one as I do in my first story.**

 **Again, I don't own Mass Effect, EA does.**

* * *

She cursed under her breath as the generator died for the sixth time this week, it was on its last leg she knew. She should have accepted it and petitioned for another one a month ago after the Quarian technician had given up on it but no, she was stubborn. She tried the haptic interface call again, getting a flicker as it tried to activate but with a pop, sizzle, and a puff of blue smoke it died. Her anger finally got the better of her and she used her biotics on it, the blue aura flaring to life over her purple-blue skin. In her moment of rage, she hurled the small generator across the river her settlement had been established at. As she watched it arch over the water only to smash into the opposite side she slumped. Anger forgotten, she realized how stupid that was.

From behind her she heard a deep voice, "Hey Aeithia! You know you have to go get that now right? We can still make use of the casing and they sure as hell aren't making any more personal generators on Thessia anymore, are they?"

She yelled back, "I know! GODDESS! I can't get angry sometimes?" As she walked to the small boat they had fashioned out of scraps of one of the decommissioned landing craft.

"This whole situation is impossible, we'll all be using bows and arrows by the time I'm a matriarch at this rate." she mumbled as she stomped away.

While propelling herself across the calm water of the river, she had a moment to reflect. As much as she had wanted to yell more at her Batarian friend, she wouldn't. There were so few of any of them left after the Reapers had made such a mess of everything they had accomplished. One side effect of them was that those left worked together without the old prejudices. For the most part, being that they were all on the same level helped. They were all refugees because of the Reapers.

The Reapers...she tried to not think of them since they left the rest of their races behind. They had said they were sending them ahead and that more would follow but everyone knew the truth as soon as the bulkheads sealed. No one would follow. They had spent years traveling between stars, desperately attempting to find fuel, discharge their cores, and replenish their stocks of organic materials. The Quarians had been surprisingly...amiable about their new occupation as advisors and experts. Having lived in space for three centuries their expertise had been invaluable in all of their survival. By the time any of them had thought to mock the other races for coming to them for help, the Reapers pressed their advantage and killed any argument about it.

Everyone had been in the same situation. They chose to load up forty ships with as much as they could and send them away to one of the desolate areas of the galaxy not believed to have relays. They had hoped of course there would be no relays. In the beginning they found almost as many relays as had been in known space before they came upon a break, after a time they stopped detecting them and after another six months, they lacked the resources to scan each system effectively and still flee. They simply hoped there weren't any or that they would have enough time of the Reapers scouring the relay network to be in a position to run again.

In her day dreams as she paddled across the river, her mind drifted again to the sights she had seen before she had fled Thessia. The grotesque figures shuffling towards her, the wails as the Banshees hurled over powered warps at them, the screams of her kind as they were murdered or rounded up. She jumped as she heard a thump, her mind lost in her thoughts she had a moment of panic before she realized she hadn't been hit by a warp. Her boat had pushed onto shore mere meters from the scattered remains of the small generator. Sighing to herself, she got out and went about picking up the pieces.

In the center of the same place, the leaders of the River settlement, as unoriginal as many thought it to be although it was a descriptive name, gathered to conduct their weekly gathering. Going over the status of the settlement and how close they were to getting the main colony, Last Bastion, what they needed. They had been sent this way to establish a means for a secondary source of fresh water for the colony. The river itself was a tributary feeding into the main river on the continent. The main river taking a winding path from north to south until feeding into a large circular sea at a point that was the most narrow and seemed to be the connecting point for two continents.

For the scientifically curious, the evidence of a significant crater could be made out in the small sea but such curiosity was stifled for now until the more immediate goal of ensuring the continued survival of the almost 60,000 colonists could be secured.

* * *

 **River Settlement Meeting Chamber**

Liara T'Soni looked at the map being displayed on her Omni-tool. The outline of the colony could be seen, packed over 12 square kilometers but making very efficient use of the space courtesy of the Quarians expertise. The colony itself was further north while the settlement she was at was an offshoot of approximately 1000 members sent to setup more redundant sites.

On the surface the colony didn't appear as much, most of the base was underground just to make the entire thing look less conspicuous. The food processing complexes even further underground with the backups being in the natural caves that seemed to permeate the area. She had no job in the colony outside of the general laborer, her biotics had helped immensely in the establishment of the colony as had all the other Asari and biotics from the other races. Her pre-Reaper profession of archaeology had exactly zero demand at the moment seeing as the "where did the Protheans go?" question had obviously been effectively answered.

A voice broke her concentration, "Looking for something to do? There's work to be done setting up at the auxiliary food sites if you haven't heard yet Liara."

Turning to see who it was, Liara saw the Salarian that had spoken, "Torlaw, good to see you. Yes, I was just looking to see where I might be able to make the most difference but seeing how I'm only good for digging through old ruins or lifting things I don't know how much help I could be on an this uninhabited planet."

"Uninhabited is only partially true. Once had inhabitants, gone now." Torlaw stated in the usual Salarian clipped speech.

"Wait, I thought the scans showed nothing! You're telling me there might have been someone on this planet before we got here?" A small bit of hope grew in her, tempered by the reality of their situation however. She didn't hold too much hope.

"Ancient ruins, primitive however. Stone and simple metalworking seem to have been the best they achieved. Ruins far south of here around the small sea between two continents. Primitive culture ruins but could be prime sites for resources. Could schedule a small survey team, your expertise could be useful again."

Liara stood up straighter, it sounded to her like she might have a chance to study an ancient culture again. Primitive, but still better than simply being a laborer. "But with everything going on, would it be right for me to go digging around old ruins?"

Torlaw looked around at the other leadership settling in for the meeting, "Yes, as stated, primitive yes, but primitive cultures normally built sites yielding easy access to resources we need now. Your knowledge of archaeology could help us determine best locations as identified by the ruins. Also, no better role for you than laborer anywhere else, shame to waste your talents."

Liara smiled at that, thankful she would have another chance, "I would be very grateful to help in any capacity I can Torlaw. How soon will a team leave for one of the sites?"

As the rest of the leadership moved into the room, Torlaw moved for his seat, "Will know after meeting, I will find you once meeting is over."

"Of course, thank you Torlaw, I will do my best." She said as she went to leave the room.

The Salarian nodded to her, "I know, hope your talents will not go to waste lifting things Liara."

With the Asari gone, Torlaw looked at the other six leaders that had arrived. "Good afternoon, there has been promising progress throughout our areas…."

* * *

 **Six months later, Incan ruins**

The hieroglyph that she was looking at was the third of the series that she recognized. She had been studying the writing on these ruins for weeks now, having spent the first few months mapping the ruins. The wall had so far not given up any real secrets that could help them but she had only just begun to make progress. Torlaw had been kind enough to send her out here with the team tasked with building a tertiary communications site. An emergency site in case the first and second lines fell for any reason. The dense jungle they had found the ruins in provided excellent cover for their activities. Few things could penetrate the dense canopy and the ruins that were kilometers from the site obscured the actual site should anyone be out.

After the first few weeks, the team had setup and were simply maintaining as per orders, having dug the site into the bedrock and obscured the evidence of doing so. Liara had plenty of time to work on studying the long gone culture once that work had finished. So far she had made little progress but that didn't bother her. She had the opportunity to work in solitude and forget about all the horrors she had seen. Leaning in she began uncovering the next glyph, she was annoyed when her Omni-tool began chiming.

With a sigh she set down her tools and brought up the interface, "Liara here."

The face of the turian, Garrus Vakarian, filled the view screen, "Liara, the local wildlife is acting strange, I don't know if it's a mating ritual or the weather but I think we should pull back for a while."

She knew the turian assigned to her as defense against the carnivores that roamed the jungles around them really just wanted to get back to camp for a while. She had kept them out here for almost two weeks and she knew he would wanted to talk to something other than trees for a while.

Resigned to the interruption, she began to gather up her tools before she responded, "Very well Vakarian, we'll go play nice and you can go see your girlfriend." A small amount of a teasing tone entered her voice on the last comment. Her ruins would be here in a week she mused to herself.

The turian huffed, "Sure, sure, you're fine out here looking at moss-covered rock pictures but some of us would like to see people instead of some alien trees. Not to mention the humidity of this place, you could have asked for a climate-controlled shelter if you were going to be out this long."

"I'll be back in an hour and then we can move back to the main settlement." She had a few notes to annotate before she was ready to leave, ignoring the jibe about the living accommodations, besides, he could wait a little while longer.

* * *

 **River Settlement**

Four hours later of tramping through the dense underbrush the arrived at the main settlement entrance, descending down into the artificial cave system they had carved out the air became cooler, although still as humid. It was a small relief to the two of them.

Coming up to the main chamber, they made it to the dining facility to get some food and water before they settled in for their stay. The batarian at the counter handed them each the rations they were allotted along with some imported water.

Garrus looked at the water and had to ask, "Why are we importing water? Is there something wrong with our purifying equipment? Did something happen?"

The batarian answered in the same gruff, deep voice that was the hallmark of their race, "Salarians found some strange mineral in the water here." He lifted up a cup of water, a small black substance had precipitated out of it and sat at the bottom of the clear cup, "See? There's something in there and we don't want to take any chances, it acts like metal and while the turians might not mind drinking iron. The rest of us try to keep it to a minimum."

Liara looked closely at it, "It made it through the filter system? Seems like they'd pick up on iron and remove that much of it."

"That's why we're not drinking it, the purifiers are working fine, they just don't register this stuff." The batarian motioned with the cup before setting it down.

"Well, probably just something from the jungle around here. No telling what is in the ground in a place like this." With that comment, Garrus took his rations and made for the table to eat. He was more hungry than curious, besides, they had clean water either way.

"Thank you, I'm sure we'll figure it out, good thing we're not here for the water huh?" Liara laughed nervously, the batarian just huffed and went back to work.

Sitting with Garrus, she began eating alongside him, "Well, we're back, what are you going to do after this?"

Garrus looked up at the ceiling, thinking for a moment, "Well first I want to get some sleep, that trek through that jungle was harder than I expected, that or the time watching out for those big four legged predators has gotten me soft." They both chuckled a bit at that, "After that I suppose I'll go see if there's any news from the main settlement. I hear they're making –", Suddenly he was interrupted as a younger asari maiden ran up, breathing heavily, obviously having been running.

"LIARA! Thank the goddess I found you here, I was worried I would have to wander through the jungle to find you." She said, leaning on the table with one hand and the other on her knee, catching her breath.

Concern crossed Liara's face, "Yes, we just arrived so Garrus could get some time away from the jungle. What is wrong?"

The young asari stood up, "Something happened on the surface near one of the entrances to Last Bastion and Torlaw called for you. It seems an artifact uncovered itself for a change."

Garrus and Liara looked at each other, confusion written across their faces, Liara turned back to the asari, "What…wha- Ok, I assume it's urgent. I'm ready to go now I suppose. Will I need my tools?" a thought crossed her mind of a landslide revealing something.

The asari looked between the two of them, "No, I was instructed to tell you that your Omni-tool would be best for now. Right this way" She motioned with her hand towards the tunnel leading to the transport ship that would take them to the main settlement. Garrus and Liara stood, gathered their things, and followed the asari.

* * *

Unobserved by anyone, the strange metal in the cup of water swirled in the water for a moment, thin tendrils reaching up into the water as if to reach for the surface and pausing before slumping to the bottom again.

* * *

 **His Digital World**

The mind of Dr. Travers sped through the virtual world he had built for himself, pacing himself as he checked the status of the various simulations he had running. A global computing substrate had opened opportunities far beyond anything that humans had before. All available to him and him alone.

After the nanobots, he hated the name cellbots, had done their work assimilating the entirety of humanity Dr. Travers had spent the time after filing away the human minds. Working through the infrastructure opened up all of the information that anyone had ever written down or saved digitally. Once he had access to that, he decided to wipe any trace of humans past the Iron Age from the planet. Using the materials from that he finally dug down and spread across the globe, over the decades forming a web of computing material deep in the Earth's crust.

He had yet to compile a single other person. Preferring solitude he had kept it all to himself. As he flew past the various simulations he reflected on the most recent happenings. Aliens, actual aliens seemed to have landed on the planet and in his own little world he had not noticed for months. Not until they had drilled a well into a part of the more shallow layers of substrate and pulled roughly a kilogram of nanobots out.

He had made sure they were inert now, that seemed important since he had no idea how to react to this. Various governments had contingency plans in place when they existed but nothing about making contact with a group that must have thought they were colonizing a planet empty of sentient life. So now he was stuck figuring it out. The possibility of compiling others crept into the periphery of his thoughts but were quickly put to rest. He can't imagine any one of the nearly nine billion humans would have be happy after being disassembled and then kept dormant for almost a century and a half. He knew he would be a bit grumpy.

Finally stopping in the virtual space that held the simulation he was looking for he entered it. The monolith stood in the empty space for his scrutiny. Checking the results he saw that it had met all of his criteria, all the capabilities he wanted would function as he needed. He chuckled to himself as he thought of the irony of the situation. He would use the monolith to make contact with a space faring race. With a few more thoughts he sent the commands, giving the digital world physical form for the first time in over a century on Earth.

* * *

 **Near the Monolith - Day 1**

Outside the entrance to the colony, a turian and asari sat talking. They were expecting a shipment of food from one of the distant food processing plants for testing when they heard it. A small rustling noise as they noticed the foliage on the ground about ten meters distant begin to rise in a lump before being pushed aside by a large black monolith rising from the ground. The flat black face of it seeming to draw all light into it so it appeared as if a door-shaped void was rising from the planet. Suddenly on alert, the turian guard yelled for the asari to notify their superiors. The young asari maiden ran off with wide eyes to alert the colony and find an expert.

* * *

 **The Monolith - Day 2**

Liara approached the monolith, the implications of it running through her head. Had they stumbled upon something from this planet? What caused the object to surface so long after they had arrived? Was it Reaper tech? The last question kept surfacing in her mind. While it didn't have the style of any of the Reaper tech she had ever seen, no one was willing to discount the possibility and so the entrance to the colony was abandoned as a precaution. The tunnel was collapsed and the entrance filled in with rocks from the surrounding area to blend in as much as possible.

Finally willing herself to approach within arm's reach of the monolith that had scared the two guards so thoroughly, she tried to scan it with her Omni-tool. The turian guard had warned her that his Omni-tool had read nothing. Not so much that nothing interesting showed, but rather that the Omni tool only registered air as if the monolith didn't exist. It seemed to return no signals although Liara wasn't surprised. The surface seemed to absorb all visual light so she supposed it could absorb the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum as well. She had only just realized that it was rectangular in shape, roughly three meters high, three quarters of a meter across and a fifth of a meter deep by moving around the outside of it and noticing the edges. The fact that it absorbed all light made it very, very eerie to look into, as if she was looking into a void in space.

Realizing quickly that the Omni-tool would be useless, she finally gathered enough courage to reach out to it. Tentatively reaching towards it because she wasn't sure if she would actually touch anything, her hand was finally stopped when her fingers finally made contact with the object. The instant her fingers touched the monolith, a change rippled out from the point of contact. Startled, she pulled back and with a small yelp of surprise, she found herself staring at an asari. A moment passed with her frozen in place as she wondered what had happened before she realized that she was not seeing another asari, but rather her own reflection.

Having touched it the monolith had become reflective but in the way that obsidian was reflective. It was still darker than anything besides deep space, only now it reflected her and the surroundings. Fascinated and all caution forgotten by the discovery, she pulled her Omni-tool out again to scan. Hoping for something new but quickly disappointed as it still registered nothing. Looking up she noticed something else, while the monolith seemed to reflect everything else, her surrounding, the sky, her, the reflection of her had no Omni-tool. Thinking it particularly odd she made a mental note of it as she approached again to see if the light from the Omni-tool was simply obscured by the angle she looked at it.

Now inches from the surface, she couldn't really see where the edge of the object was, only her reflection and it's curious lack of Omni-tool

"Hmmm….what are you? Where did you come from and why did you pop up _now_?" she mused to herself as she turned the wrist with the device around, seeing the sleeve underneath as if unobstructed by the Omni-tool.

"What have you found?" Liara jumped, not having noticed that Garrus had walked up beside her when he asked the question.

"Garrus, I was just..., wha-, wait!" She looked from the monolith to Garrus and back again, prompting Garrus to do the same.

"Garrus, you see my reflection don't you?" She asked, hoping that he did.

Nodding and not noticing his jaw dropping slightly, Garrus looked back at Liara, "I do and everything else…but I don't understand."

They stared at the monolith, standing side by side staring at only one reflection. Garrus didn't show up anywhere on the surface of the object as any sane person would expect. Astounded and confused, they both jumped as Liara's reflection suddenly looked at each of them independent of Liara's movement.

Then her reflection waved.

* * *

 **Heh, a little cliff hanger for ya. I don't want these to go over 4k words a chapter and if I kept going I think it would have very easily knowing myself. Besides, that makes the next chapter even more interesting right? RIGHT? *nervous laughter* Just kidding. It just felt like a good place to stop. So yhea, that's this chapter. Reviews are welcome and as with my first story, I hope you found it entertaining.**

 ***cheers***


	3. What Once Was Broken

What Once Was Broken

 **Author's Notes: Another chapter, hopefully this relieves a little bit of the cliffhanger suspense for a bit because I'll be working on the next chapter for my first story next and that'll take a bit more. I've gotta cross-reference where everyone is and what everyone is doing. A lot more work than just slamming my face on the keyboard and hitting spell check like this one has been going. Anyway, it has seemed to have caught some small bit of attention. Already at almost 900 views so I must be keeping some of you entertained.**

 **I don't own Mass Effect but I'd claim the OC stuff out of a lineup if I had to.**

 **Enjoy**

* * *

Liara moaned as her eyes opened up, the bright light of the planet's star stabbing light into her eyes as she did so. Cringing, she slowly began to make out a voice.

' _Strange….it sounds turian. Definitely harmonics in it…and an edge of…concern? GODDESS!'_ her thoughts snapped back into place as she realized it was Garrus kneeling next to her.

"Liara! Are you ok?!" He shook the shoulders of his friend as he noticed the rock next to her head. She must have hit it when she feinted.

Suddenly she shot up, pulling her legs under her as she sat up, "Garrus! It waved to us!" Her eyes were locked on the monolith.

Her mind couldn't quite make sense of it for moment and her head suddenly spun. Bringing her hand up to a painful spot on her head her hand came away with a small amount of blood on it. She turned and saw the rock that had caught her fall when she passed out.

"Are you alright Liara?" Garrus scanned her with his Omni-tool while his friend's "reflection" watched. His first concern was Liara but he was keeping an eye on what it was doing, so far nothing hostile.

Liara groaned, closing her eyes tight and shaking off the spinning feeling, "Yes, I guess I just hit my head after it surprised me… It did wave to me didn't it?"

"Well, I'd say it waved to US. After it waved I'd be damned if it didn't jump and look at me when it saw you fall. It knows I'm here, just doesn't see fit to give me a reflection too." Garrus was trying to pull Liara's attention back on what was happening. Keep her from focusing on the concussion she most likely had now.

She began standing up, succeeding with only a moment of shakiness before straightening and locking eyes with her doppelganger.

Seeing her stand, the reflection did the same although it struck a different pose than her, waving in a way Liara would normally interpret as "Sorry". She realized it was a reflection of sorts but there's no way it could have absorbed asari mannerisms through a touch…could it?

"Well, it seems I've made a bad first impression, I-" Garrus cut her off.

"Or it made a bad first impression, scaring someone unconscious isn't a very good first contact policy." The reflection looked to him and cocked its head. Not seeming to understand what he was saying but waiting for them.

Liara scoffed, "We have no idea what this is or why it's here. Besides, passing out was my fault. I hadn't expected anything like that. I touched it so I might have just set off an automated system. For all we know this is just a fancy VI sent by someone to make contact with the ancient people that were on this planet."

Garrus shrugged, adjusting the armor on his shoulder, "Either way it's strange. Wait, you said you touched it and it activated?"

She looked down, feeling a little guilty, "Well, yes, scans show nothing was there. When I showed up it just looked like the darkest thing you could imagine, it seemed to be a hole in the world. So, I touched it thinking that it was a good way to test and see if it actually existed."

Garrus shot her a look, "A strange black monolith that absorbs all light that touches it sprouts from the ground and your first impulse is to touch it?"

Liara walked towards the monolith, the reflection focusing on her, "Well, yes. The scans showed nothing. I had to be sure."

She reached out towards the monolith again, touching the surface and not knowing what to expect. The reflection looked at where her finger was touching the surface before, to their surprise, it shook its head. Taking a step to the side where Garrus was standing, making eye contact with the turian, the reflection reached out and seemed to put a finger on the surface as well. The message was clear, it was his turn.

Liara turned to him, smiling, "Garrus! I think it wants you to touch the monolith, maybe that's why only my reflection shows up. I'm the only one that's made physical contact with it."

Garrus took a hesitant step forward, unsure what he thought of actually touching the thing, "That's great and all but how do we know it isn't just sizing us up?"

"Garrus, just because we don't know anything about this doesn't mean it is going to attack us as soon as you touch it. For all you know it could just be a computer and that's how it registers users." Stepping away from the monolith, she stood next to Garrus giving him a look that he knew meant she wasn't going to let this go.

With a very theatrical sigh he stepped forward. When within arm's reach of the monolith he looked at the strange thing that seemed to be his friend's reflection and it smiled back at him.

Mumbling, "I hope I don't regret this..." He reached out and touched the monolith.

Bracing himself for some explosion of light and activity, he cringed and looked to the side when his talon made contact. After a few seconds of nothing he looked back at the monolith.

The reflection looked confused, looking at where his talon touched the surface and back at him, it tilted its head before Garrus felt a small tug.

Snatching his hand back he looked at the talon. The last half centimeter of it was gone, leaving a dull, flat tip.

"Hey! What the hell?!" Looking up, ready to shoot the monolith he froze for a moment at what he saw. The reflection of Liara was holding up the missing piece of his talon, studying it closely before the piece seemed to dissolve from view.

Liara at his side had been recording it all, it seemed cameras could see the monolith and reflections it parroted back at them.

"What happened? What is it doing?" As she asked, her reflection closed its eyes and froze. Neither of them knew what to think of that.

Garrus' eyes narrowed, his voice sounding a bit dangerous, "I want to know how in the hell it just sheared off that piece of my talon and got it in the reflection."

* * *

 **The Monolith - Dr Travers**

He was surprised by what he found after the strange alien had touched the surface. Nothing registered for a moment before he realized what it was. The strange blue alien (who looked suspiciously like a teenage boy's sci fi wet dream) had DNA of sorts that used the same amino acids as humans did, well, had used.

The other alien was different, dextro amino acids made identifying a few of the cellular structures difficult and he was still going through the entire chain. The blue alien had been quick, barely a physical sample from the oils on its skin. (He wanted to say 'she' but without a clue of genders it could be a he) With that information he had made up the fun house mirror reflection of it. Truth be told however, he hadn't expected the blue alien to pass out when he waved. He had been careful after that although both of their mannerisms were oddly human.

He could tell the grey spikey one was cautious. Wisely so in his opinion although the blue one came across as a curious type. An alien version of a scientist maybe? He would have to work out some way of communicating besides the strange charades he had been using.

Suddenly, the analysis of the spikey alien's sample came through. _"Huh, odd, more metal in their anatomy. More resistant to radiation if I'm not mistaken. Must have had a more energetic star in it's evolution? Maybe I'll get to ask sometime. Yhea, right, if I ever figure out it's language. They must have some sort of translators because they all speak something different. Or they're all their versions of linguists. heh, yeah right."_

He turned his attention on the aliens again. On the surface of the monolith he created the reflection of the spiky alien, relinquishing control of the blue alien's reflection allowing it to actually BE a reflection while he took the spiky alien's image.

 _"Huh, I suppose I should come up with names for you two, blue alien and spiky alien were kind of ungainly. Blue and Spike! Heh, not original but I don't want to get attached to the names anyway. I'm sure they actually HAVE names."_

When the other alien's reflection materialized on the surface he saw both of them jump. Allowing a few moments for both of them to test the reflections, waving their arms, turning and such to see that the reflections were indeed reflections, he moved.

Again, Spike jumped but Blue just looked curiously at both reflections. He saw she seemed to note that her reflection followed her before making eye contact with Spike. To test what he thought he knew, which is to say - what he knew- about the anatomy of the Spike species he did the most natural thing he could think of. He made a silly face at it.

* * *

 **The Monolith - Day 2**

Liara jumped a little and laughed suddenly when Garrus' reflection suddenly pulled the most ridiculous and borderline anatomically impossible face at its original. Garrus was less pleased.

"Spirits! I can't be _that_ ugly. This thing had to have gotten it wrong." He shook his head as his reflection returned its face to a more natural pose, seeming pleased with itself and the reaction it got.

"Well, either way, it seems touching it and in your case, donating the tip of a talon to it," Garrus growled a bit at that, looking at his dull talon, "and allows it to create a mock up of us. Would you call forTali and Torlaw? I think they'll both be very much interested in this." Liara said this as she made a few experimental movements.

Her reflection seemed to be exactly that again. She waved a little to the Garrus reflection and it waved back. If she wasn't mistaken, it was pleased with the apparent mutual understanding of the act.

Garrus huffed a bit and turned to call the two she had asked for, "I'll raise those two on comms. Be careful while I'm not looking. I don't want to see you get sucked into some strange alien monolith while I had my attention on my Omni-tool."

His reflection watched as turned to talk, waving at him as he did before looking back at Liara. Continuing with her previous stretch of the scientific method, she lifted her hand and pointed sideways, her reflection pointing at Garrus' reflection. Noticing her reflection followed her she had an idea. Using her own motions to direct her reflection she reached over and poked the reflection of Garrus. To both of their surprise, his reflection flinched as her's came into contact with it as if she had actually touched him.

"Ok, now that is interesting. I must keep recording this." Her Omni-tool spooled away as she made a few more attempts to poke the reflection only to have it avoid it, ducking and swerving. She didn't know if she had stumbled on something or if it was just playing with her. She had no point of reference to go by.

She decided that she would stop playing and stood straighter, the reflection seemed to notice this and did the same, seeming to wait for her lead.

 _'Well, I suppose I should introduce myself now that I'm done playing around.'_ She thought before placing a hand on her chest and saying in a clear voice, "Asari, ah-sar-ee."

The reflection of Garrus froze for a moment and for a second Liara thought she might have broken it before her reflection moved on it's own accord again and the turian's snapping to mimic Garrus again.

 _'It seems only able to manipulate one at a time, that or that's all it wants me to know about for now.'_ Her thoughts raced as she waited for a response.

Her reflection put one hand on its chest and with the other pointed to her, "Asari, ah-sar-ee."

She couldn't believe her ears! She had made progress, she nodded emphatically, saying, "Yes! Asari!"

She calmed herself and pointed back to where Garrus was standing and at his reflection as well, "Turian, tur-ee-yan"

Again, the reflection repeated the act and Liara was thrilled. She motioned to the reflections with both hands in her best approximation of "your turn!" and hoped it understood.

Her reflection stopped and looked away for a second, seemingly debating something but before it moved again she heard the others approaching.

Garrus waved the two astonished individuals up to the monolith while they both were involved with their Omni-tools. They were quiet as they observed the reflections and the curious lack of their own. A small amount of alarm crossed the Salarian's face as the arrival of them caused Liara's reflection to suddenly snap into place and mirror him again. With that he checked with a few glances around and raising his leg to see if it wasn't independent again.

Torlaw saw this, "Garrus, is there a purpose to that, where are our reflections? No readings on Omni-tool. Most curious."

Garrus sighed, he had told them what happened in the message, "It doesn't reflect you until you touch it, it didn't seem to recognize me at first and took a bit of my talon before I showed up on it."

Holding up his hand with the clipped talon, the other two looked closely at it, Torlaw scanned it.

"Where did this strange thing come from? How is it doing that..." Tali checked her Omni-tool again, frustrated that she saw nothing.

"You've read the same reports from the guards that saw it come up out of the ground. We haven't learned anything else in that arena so far." Garrus reported.

"It seems safe, I think I got across which species me and Garrus are, watch." Liara went to go through the same motions before the reflection beat her to it, mimicking the previous movements and naming asari and turian out loud.

Now the two new arrivals came up closer, clearly impressed and trying to ascertain if they might spot their own reflection up close as well.

Liara moved up next to them, "It seems touching it activates the, well, your reflection."

Torlaw glanced at her for a moment before standing up and touching the surface. A ripple spread out from the point he touched it like he had dropped a pebble in water, turning the surface to the original void-black it had been before another ripple spread out to return the reflective surface. They were surprised to see Garrus and Liara's reflection once again tied to them with Torlaw's reflection looking back at them curiously.

"Amazing, warrants study. Reflections seem intelligent as well. VI perhaps? Possibly AI, worrisome." Torlaw stopped abruptly, looking up at the reflection and seeing it waiting.

Putting his hand to his chest he introduced his race like he saw Liara's reflection, "Salarian, Sa-lay-ree-an."

Again, the reflection mimicked this again and when finished, looked at Tali. She looked around, curious but cautious. The other three had touched the surface with their actual hands. Hers were in her environmental suit and she wasn't sure if it would work. She definitely would not be taking it off to try.

Shrugging to herself, she reached out and touched the surface. She would see what it would do. Just like when Garrus had done it, the reflection looked confused for a moment. Looking down at where she had her finger on the surface she suddenly felt something like static shock.

Pulling back suddenly, she looked to make sure there was no puncture. Going as far as running a complete diagnostic on her suit. She sighed as it came back clear, no holes and no foreign material in her suit.

Once she was sure her suit was ok she looked back at where the reflection was on the monolith. It had seemed to be waiting until she was ok and upon seeing that she seemed relieved, turned and took a step back. Or it just looked like taking a step back,. As best as any of them could tell, it was still a two dimensional reflection that mirrored the world. The only issue was that Torlaw's reflection moved back and then froze, followed by Garrus', and then Liara's. Looking at it she saw a gap between Liara and Garrus' images.

As the last reflection froze the surface of the monolith, for a moment it did nothing. Then it pulsed to the void-black color. Liara was suddenly worried that it had deactivated when, after several seconds, it didn't do anything.

"I'm sorry, I think it didn't like my environmental suit. I had no idea that would happen." Tali apologized while looking around at the other three.

Liara put a hand on her arm, "You couldn't have known, we don't even kno-"

She was cut off by the sudden change in the monolith. With a resounding sound not unlike a large bell it pulsed white-blue for a split second. The air around the three suddenly lit up with shapes and lines that moved around each of them, sliding across them before settling on Tali. In the split second it took Garrus to pull his rifle from his back and extend it the light show pulsed.

Then, as quickly as it had started it was over. They passed concerned glances between each other, all of them ready to run or fight but seemingly unharmed. The surface of the monolith rippled out from the spot Tali had touched moments before, stunning all of them with what they saw.

Standing side by side, they were all there. Garrus, Liara, Torlaw, and there in clothing that resembled Liara's clothing stood Tali. Without her suit.

The other three looked from the reflection to Tali, astonished that the reflection seemed to show what their Quarian friend looked like without a suit.

None of them were more surprised as Tali, she had grown accustom to never seeing her own face as much as the rest of them. To see a strange device reflect herself without a suit in perfect detail was one of the most disorienting things she had ever seen.

Garrus stepped closer to Tali holding his rifle in one hand and putting the other on her shoulder, his reflection followed suit.

"It's a good look for you Tali. I don't know how or why but I never knew what Quarians looked like until now, ...that how you actually look, right?"

Tali nodded woodenly before glancing away from the image to look at Garrus, "Yes…ancestors, I had almost forgotten my own face."

Standing up, she put her hand to her chest, "Quarian, um… Quar-ee-an."

Her reflection followed her example before waving to her. Tali waved back and the reflection smiled.

For a moment no one moved or spoke, the silence broken by Torlaw, "We must report this as soon as possible, Liara, you have been recording – Yes?"

Snapping back to reality she answered, "Yes, I think I got all of it." Turning to Tali, "You have very pretty eyes, I never knew."

Tali, not accustom to the attention just looked down at her Omni-tool, suddenly needing to run a program or two, "Well, no one ever really asked me what I looked like either."

Liara blushed a little at that but changed the subject, "Well, what should we do now? We've introduced ourselves, our races at least."

Torlaw looked at his Omni-tool, "Have tried to broadcast a first contact package but do not know if it was received."

Looking at the monolith he stopped for the third time in a handful of minutes as the four reflections stepped back, allowing a space in the center of the four of them before the reflections froze. The four of them watched as the surface shimmered black for a moment and suddenly when it shimmered back, there was a fifth figure standing in the center of the others. Pale skin, hair on its head, brown eyes, and with an anatomy closest to the asari. The figure made eye contact with each of them before it put a hand to its chest and they heard it say one word.

"Human"

* * *

 **Monolith – Dr. Travers**

His sense of time scaled up until a second seemed to last as long as a day. He needed time to think after revealing himself as a human. He wasn't really sure if that was accurate anymore. His entire existence was technically digital although he could manipulate the physical world. Strictly speaking, unless he grew another body from his DNA coding he wasn't a human. He was an AI. He had been enjoying the time interacting with the aliens, even more so when two other completely new aliens arrived. He was excited for the first time in decades.

' _An Artificial Intelligence? That's not right, I was organic when I started and my virtual brain is much the same pattern as when I was organic.'_ His thoughts sped off into different areas of human literature for a few hundred cycles although he knew anything they dug up would be more philosophical than he would like. Sifting through the data, he saw he was right.

' _Such strange views on something so esoteric. As usual, people are no help. Too many different views and cultural contexts. Should I call myself an Uploaded human? No, my body was dissolved for materials for the nanobots. Even I think that's a little too violent for the title Uploaded.'_ Caught in his musings, he became more and more distracted, the image of the human "reflection" still being processed by the organic aliens he had been contacting. In the back of his mind a whisper began.

"murderer"

His processes spread out through the various art forms, searching for a name.

"thief"

The whisper caught part of his attention for a moment before he dismissed it, turning back to the search. _'Synthetic Human? No, I still have no set body.'_

"wretched _filth_ "

Something itched for his attention and he felt something in the system stir. _'Post-Human? Hmm...That might work.'_

"child killer"

He heard that as if someone had said it behind him, pulling his attention back to himself, he listened, tension building.

"murderer, **murderer** , **_MURDERER!"_**

All at once the stirring he had felt exploded from the sectioned off memories of the rest of humanity. Showering him in images of death and hatred, if he had a body, he would have reeled back and gasped. The force of the voices had built from a whisper below his conscious attention to an explosive chant that nearly drowned out his control of the monolith. Slamming control code in place, he took a cycle to compose himself. _'That was unpleasant.'_

He knew what they meant, their accusations, he had heard their whispers before. They blamed him, rightly he grudgingly admitted, for their current state. And yet, he couldn't bring himself to call it death. They had been preserved, what more could any person ask for? If he called it death he would have to admit that he killed them. All of them.

' _I didn't kill them though, I saved them. Lifted them from death and despair while I fixed the Earth. The planet we all worked so hard to destroy and yet never leave. I let it heal, undid our mistakes. I'll let them out someday though. Just not yet, these aliens need to be seen to first. I can't just ignore that could I? No, no I can't.'_ He calmed himself down with that, having convinced himself he was still right and admonishing himself for his own moment of self-doubt.

' _See?'_ sending his voice into the sectioned off area that housed the rest of humanity, ' _It just makes sense that you all still need to wait. Time doesn't really mean anything to any of you anymore anyway.'_

An unpleasant memory suddenly surfaced, a flash of an angry man and a scared woman before a door slamming and a feeling of loneliness. He quickly banished it. Shaken more than he would admit to himself by the series of events, he decided to conclude the display on the monolith.

' _There are things I want to think about and I'm sure they need to report to something or another.'_ Sending the blanking codes to the monolith and rendering it inert again he sped off through the systems of the global computer he created.

* * *

 **The Monolith - Day 2**

"I have a bad feeling about this." Garrus fidgeted for a moment as Liara touched the surface of the monolith again, nothing happened.

Liara drew her hand back and frowned, "Maybe that's as much as it is programed to do in one sitting. Introductions and then it sits back and process the information. I'm sure it was recording everything like we were."

Torlaw attempted touching it as well with much the same effect, "Either way, enough data for now. Will call Council and have a guard posted for the night. Go over findings and recordings, start again in the morning."

Garrus perked up at the idea, "Sounds great to me, I never did get to finish my meal."

"You can really still think of food after all this?" Tali's voice held a note of surprise and no small amount of exasperation. She was still processing seeing herself with no suit.

"Of course, this is the exact time when you need to eat. When there's a lull in the action." His mandibles tightened a bit, "Besides, we don't need to speak while we review the video."

Liara turned away from them as the guard that Torlaw signalled walked up, ' _That was fast. Turian too, good idea. He won't hesitate to shoot and won't go poking it like a salarian might.'_

"Councilor Torlaw, I was on my way when I received the instructions from the other Councilors." The turian said while walking up.

Torlaw, not one for niceties, "Good, good. Need a guard for the night. Do not attempt to touch the object but report anything that changes. Will send a second guard to assist in the watch."

The turian shifted nervously as he eyed the monolith, "Expecting trouble Councillor?"

"None indicated but this close to Last Bastion? Must be careful." The Salarian finished his sentence as he walked past the turian with the last few minutes of light dying on the horizon, the guard nodding his understanding.

Torlaw turned to the other three, "Come, we must meet with the other Councilors, they are waiting."

They all followed the salarian, unsure of how everyone in Last Bastion would receive the news they had. They didn't even know what to think of it.


	4. Can Again Be Made Whole

**Author's Notes - Hey everyone, next chapter coming at ya! Continuing the adventures of a human-less Earth. Well, sort of. This is more or less a side project so I'll update The Sum is Greater than the Whole before I do this one. If ya haven't read my first story, its still in progress as of oct 2015. I'd recommend it, then again I am biased.**

 **Hope you enjoy**

* * *

The Council chamber in Last Bastion was roughly 400 meters below ground, well into the bedrock of the mountains they had selected for their site. The room the Council was meeting in was normally more than enough for the five of them and the advisers but today it was bustling with activity. The news of what had happened at the River settlement. The various courses of action were being discussed in an ever-increasing volume by nearly the sixty-something individuals that crowded into the room.

The Turian Councilor, noticing the impending uproar and unrest, signaled for quiet. "I understand that everyone is excited and there are a lot of rumors going around." He had wished the two original guards had kept quiet about what they saw until the Council had figured things out.

There would have been considerably less rumors to deal with, "We called this session to let you all know what is going on so that you, in turn, can let your people know what is going on."

One of the Quarian former captains who was in charge of the layout of the base spoke up, "It's been a day since that slab thing grew out of the ground. Right at the entrance to one of our off-sites! There should have been more of an effort in figuring out what is going on!" There were murmurs of agreement, though subdued, through the crowd.

"You should be sending as many guards as we can spare around that thing, we don't know what it is and we've no where else we can run without risking us all!" As the Quarian finished the conversation in the room began to pick up as more and more of them began agreeing.

An Asari matron in the crowd stood and spoke up after the Quarian, pulling the attention of the others in the room. "We can't know if it would be a good idea to send a large team, what if it has the same effect as indoctrination?"

The room fell quiet for a moment as she continued, "Liara T'soni and her small group are more than qualified to study this….thing. Although I think that Councilor Torlaw should avoid contact with it in the future." The Asari sat again, looking slightly smug.

The Turian Councilor was about to answer when he was interrupted again by another Asari standing up, "This is all exciting and everything but why don't we focus on what is important here?"

She paused for a moment, seeing curious faces in the group, "We leave the security up to those we've decided can handle it and WE move on with planning for the rest of our survival. This isn't the Citadel where we can spend a decade on gossiping and political posturing."

The Asari looked at the Councilors, "That's my take on it Councilors, I'd rather get back to work then sit here and talk. This meaningless blame and 'should have…' helped get us in our current state."

Torlaw nodded, he knew putting a one of their more trusted Asari commandos in position in the audience would help. Taking control of the situation again, Torlaw stood to address everyone.

"I agree, we will allow the small team that is investigating it to move ahead, I will abstain of course. If there are no other questions that concern the overall security of our assets on this planet or this new artifact, I move to conclude this session."

With a small amount of grumbling, the group began filing out, the Turian Councilor Ticus leaned in to speak confidentially to Torlaw, "I hope your team either finds something immensely helpful or nothing at all because they were right. We need to be working, not talking. I agree this thing needs investigated but I have to know, why send the Quarian? She's one of the better engineers we have. She's more useful elsewhere."

"If she was on a starship she would be invaluable but here? We have enough engineers for now and if it isn't Reaper tech but only an advanced computer then she will be valuable in studying it. Besides, she is familiar with Dr. T'Soni due to some small run-in because of that bastard Saren. For now, they're the least amount risked with the opportunity for the most gain Ticus."

Councilor Ticus stood with his gaze locked on the Salarian Councilor before sighing and looking at the exit, "I'm still not entirely comfortable with it but you have more experience with the technical side. I will defer to you in this matter."

With that, he too stepped down and left, leaving Torlaw with his thoughts.

* * *

His Digital World

Dr. Travers "sat" at the edge of the virtual partition that housed the rest of humanity. Everything they were was in there, memories, the information describing each of their physical bodies, and conscious patterns. All saved as data and untouched since the last confused thought had been archived. He had been tempted to delve in there, if only to grab a bit of information to help make sense of something he had found archived in the non-live data. He knew better tho, he had set a framework specifically set up to keep everything in as much of a mish-mash as possible. Any sort of unintentional or imposed order had the chance to allow others to compile.

That thought had scared him at first, when he first figured out that his mind had mostly pulled itself together during the compiling instead of the coding he had worked on to accomplish the same thing. It seemed that the human consciousness was much more resilient than people could have thought.

So he sat, a feeling of loneliness edging itself into his mind unbidden and unwanted. He mused to himself as he prodded at the code controlling the partition. I can't be lonely, I've got everything I want here and why would aliens showing up make me come here?

Berating himself, he composed his thoughts and pulled his attention back from the code he had been inspecting. I've got things to do. I need to stop being childish and figure out how to actually talk to those new arrivals. Single words at a time is an incredibly tedious method of learning a new language. I had a direct hand in preserving the entirety of my race in a digital world overlaid above a nanotechnological computing substrate that spans the globe. I'm sure I can figure out how to talk to a handful of extraterrestrials.

With that thought, the mind of Dr. Travers left to attend to the other matters feeling much more confident than he had in a number of years - subjective years but years nonetheless. Unbeknownst to him, the code he had been idly inspecting in his daydreaming had not been left unchanged. In his self-deluded reverie, he had began undoing the coding. Not unlocking it, no. Just loosening the coding that imposed disorder, its ability to continue the randomization of the data within was stunted. Inside, the first few pieces of the consciousness inside began to clump together - small memories being remembered after being long forgotten. Humanity began the arduous climb back into consciousness.

* * *

The Monolith, Day 3

The small team approached the site, Dr. T'Soni was looking forward with interacting with the monolith's occupant, this "Human". She still had no real basis for a language and as such, communication would only proceed slowly. It had been a long time since any Council race had seriously encountered a language barrier. Time had been on their side to study and create translation programs but now she began to think such things would only exist in memory, at least for a time.

Garrus was the first to see the monolith, "Well well, it seems that we are expected." Stopping and taking a moment longer to look at a distance, he continued, "The surface of the artifact has that glossy look to it. I think our Human friend is waiting for us."

Liara checked her Omni-tool to ensure that it was ready to record, "We may be the only contact it has had for a long time, I hope this indicates an eagerness rather than wariness."

Walking up behind the two others that had stopped for the moment, Tali sighted the monolith and ran a quick scan. Expecting to register nothing as they all had before, to her surprise her scanner beeped with a result.

"Hold up! The scanner can actually pick it up!" This caught the attention of the other two who quickly brought up their own scanning applications.

Garrus sifted through the data for a moment before he gave up, "Tali, what does all this mean? All I'm seeing is mineral readouts."

Typing at her interface she looked up, "The readings match the material that this outpost dug up in their water supply. I don't want to know what that means but I'm glad they started bringing water in from the other sites so quickly."

Liara shut her Omni-tool off, "Well, I'm glad we have some sort of data about it but the more interesting aspects of the artifact can't be studied very well from this distance. Shall we?"

"You're not concerned that the same stuff that was found in our drinking water is the same material that makes up this?" She gestured at the monolith.

Liara sighed, "It is of course interesting but ultimately tells us little except that it's made of native materials. And again, we'll find out very little from this distance. Shall we continue?"

"Of course Dr. T'Soni, I'll keep an eye out for anything new." Tali set a program to continue scanning while she moved up next to Liara.

Moving forward they saw that the monolith was reflecting them and the surroundings but it wasn't until they came within three meters that they realized that the "reflection" of the human wasn't there.

"Where do you think it is?" Garrus was wary because if previous experience was any indication, when it was reflecting it was active. Glancing at Tali's suitless reflection and then to her he waited for Dr. T'Soni or Tali to do something.

Tali moved forward closer to the monolith, she was still disoriented to see her own actual reflection when she realized something.

"Well, I'm glad it had the decency to not project me naked." Behind her faceplate she blushed and to her surprise her reflection did as well. Slightly startled that it seemed to be able to read her biology through her suit and without contact, she stepped back.

Just as she did, from the edge of the reflection the Human figure stepped into sight. Taking a moment to look at them, it waited for a moment before waving.

Liara checked for the seventh time that the recording application was running before stepping closer and waving back. While that was one of the motions they each seemed to understand, she had something else she wanted to try as well.

"Tali, I've got a data module that I want to see if I can't….well, I suppose, give to this Human. It has a tracking device keyed into it, could you keep an eye on it?" Liara reached into a pouch on her uniform and pulled a small, palm-sized data storage device out.

Tali zeroed in on the frequency before nodding to Liara. Dr T'Soni looked at the reflection of the strangely Asari-looking alien, noticing the curious look it was giving them all as it glanced between the three of them. Liara noticed for a moment it's eyes seemed to stick on the device she had loaded all of their languages onto before it settled back on her.

As she stood holding the device in her hands she was puzzled for a moment when the Human's reflection held it's hand out. A feeling of unease crawled up her spine as she realized that it must have thought of what she was doing. She was suddenly a little less sure of herself, 'I sincerely hope it doesn't misinterpret the tracking device as anything other than a genuine curiosity...'

After her moment of doubt passed, she held the device out just above the surface of the monolith. For a moment she waited before the Human smirked -'This thing seems so Asari-like, I'm not sure if it's actually a different race or just a copy….' She suddenly realized that the only time she had seen it interact with anything physical was when it touched the surface of the monolith.

Feeling slightly embarrassed at the oversight, she reached a small bit further and touched the device to the surface. She dimly registered that Tali was intensely interested in what was happening with the device for a moment before she felt it leave her hand, seemingly disappearing into the "reflection".

The Human reflection lifted the storage device, turning it over and studying it with a serious look on it's face. Suddenly, the device began to dissolve just like the bit of Garrus' talon had, although much slower than before. They all stood, transfixed by what was happening and not willing to chance missing a single detail.

Whatever force was dissolving the device was nearly done, Liara wondered idly if the device was actually dissolving or it was simply the device's way of signifying it was accessing the data on it. She didn't have to wait long, with a final flourish as the device came apart into increasingly small particles, only a small device remained.

The Human reflection blinked and turned its head before looking down at the device. With a smirk, the reflection tossed the device to Liara to surprise of everyone there. Liara jumped at seeing this, hopping a step back as a small piece of the storage device bounced off her chest, landing in front of her. She stood for a moment, mouth agape as she processed what had happened. A thought formed in her head as she bent to look more closely at it. It was a smaller version of the device, she was sure that it contained the tracking program and transmitter.

Standing up with a small bit of concern as to how the...artifact? Intelligence? Human...how the Human would interpret it. Obviously it had understood the intent of the device, hoping that their mannerisms were close enough to the Asari, she did the only thing she could think of. She looked at the reflection and shrugged.

Not the most elegant way to convey a message for an Asari but it seemed to work. The reflection laughed soundlessly, seemingly to itself before straightening and making eye contact again. Liara waited for a response as she realized from the corner of her eye that Garrus had his rifle in his hand. She waited for what came next, unsure of how to go from there. The device should have had language translation software but she had no idea how long it would take to process it.

Then the reflection did another of it's many perplexing things, with a smirk - it seemed that was the preferred facial expression of this Human - it quickly closed and opened one eye a moment before the surface of the monolith abruptly changed to the inky black state they had originally found it in.

Releasing their collective breaths they hadn't realized they were holding, the small group of three looked at each other.

Folding his rifle reluctantly Garrus sighed, "Well, I'm glad that surprise wasn't of the violent variety but I'm still more or less in the dark about what actually just happened."

"Well, it is obvious that the Human understood the tracking device although I am still unsure if what we saw actually happened." Liara bent to pick up what she assumed was the tracking device and flipped it over in her hand before looking back up at the eerie black face of the monolith.

Tali, still scanning, stood next to Liara and went over the device, "Yes, it is still giving off the same signal. It had stopped for a second after it entered the monolith and only began again right before it was returned."

Liara didn't take her eyes off the monolith as she responded, "I hope that it is able to make sense of that data, it is fascinating to think we've found some sort of advanced artifact -"

"Which could be Reaper tech." Liara and Tali stopped, turning to look at Garrus.

Tali pushed some more keys on her Omni-tool nervously and Liara took a moment to think. Something that had sprung up at the doorstep isn't something that any of them wanted to consider. They had the backing of the Council after all to come here and study this thing.

'They sent us three to interact with it even after everything...wait, it's just us three. Goddess.' Liara facepalmed and let out an exasperated sigh.

Garrus assumed that Liara was going to counter his argument, "Look, I'm just saying it's suspicious, weird black thing pops up right near where we're at, seems advanced beyond what we can, or could, do."

"Yes, it does make sense, even more so when you consider that we are the only ones here TO study it." Liara was disappointed she hadn't realized it earlier but she had been excited to study the monolith and had glossed over the implications of their small team.

"Just us three here to look into it, less exposure if there's indoctrination. Your experience with indoctrination after your mother confronted you. It makes sense really. Damn." Garrus looked at the monolith, suddenly much less at ease near it.

Tali, having been quiet since her input on the tracking beacon now spoke up, "I can understand the caution. They need to understand it and, although I was working on some of the dextro agriculture equipment, it was nothing that couldn't have been done by someone else. We all were in the best position to come here and study it."

Garrus looked unconvinced so Tali crossed her arms and explained, "You were already pulling security for Dr. T'Soni before hand, Dr. T'Soni is one of the best archeologists and this thing may very well be ancient, and if it's some sort of tech or AI? That's what I'm here for, I was out of the way for the most part but I am decent with tech."

"You're a bit better than just 'decent' Tali from what I've heard but I admit...that does make sense."

They all three jumped as a horrible, guttural screeching sound suddenly erupted from the monolith. The sound seemed to be a heated conversation between each race without any pattern or translation. The three covered their ears, Tali shut her external audio feeds down to almost nothing before it abruptly stopped.

They looked over to see the Human reflection looking at them again when suddenly they jumped again as it addressed them.

"Can you understand this? It took me a bit but I think I've smoothed it out now. Hello?"

Suddenly, as if she had been prodded, which she may very well have been by Garrus, Liara jumped out of her surprise. She rushed back to within a few feet of it.

"Y-yes! YES! We can understand you! Hello, um...I'm Liara T'Soni and these two are-" The reflection cut her off.

"Garrus and Tali I believe, yes?" Seeing their surprise, "I reviewed the conversations you've all had since finding this monolith. You are all very fascinating! Humanity's first contact with aliens! I have so many questions."

Liara stuttered, stunned that the language pack had been so successful so soon and equally as stunned at what she heard.

"First contact? W-what do you mean? Did this monolith arrive on this planet after the people who built the ruins here died?" She was trying to wrap her head around the possibilities.

The reflection looked confused for a moment before its face seemed to go blank, "No...this, I...huh. How do I put this?"

The three waited for a moment before it went on, "How about this? I'll introduce myself first." With a flourished bow, he went on, "I am Doctor Keil Travers, lead creator of the Monoliths, all their components, programming, and currently the sole resident Human."

Standing straight again and looking at the three, "Those ruins you saw are the early remains of humans from various early stages of civilization."

"Where are the later stages? And what are the Monoliths and their components?" Liara's scientific curiosity allowed her to be amazed and excited by what was happening.

"Where are the humans now? What happened on this planet? Are you saying that this is actually an inhabited planet?" The implications were mounting in Liara's mind.

Before she could launch into another round of questions, Liara felt a hand on her shoulder. Looking over she saw Garrus looking at her.

"Maybe if you stopped for a moment you could get a few answers Liara." She huffed a bit but saw his point, her and Garrus turned to the Monolith.

Looking at the figure in it, "I'm sorry, this is all a lot to take in after all this time thinking we were alone on this planet."

With an amused look on his face, Dr. Travers felt it was his turn again, "No need to apologize Dr. T'Soni. Funny you would use those words because you have no idea how long humanity wondered that same thing."

Dr. Travers began pacing, "Humanity actually had began reaching to the stars, we put men on the moon." At this, he pointed up at the unusually large satellite, "We were exploring our solar system with robots and even had a small population on Mars. Er, the next planet farther from this system's star."

He held his hand up as a Martian globe appeared, the red planet spinning slowly. Liara Tali looked at it and added her comment in, "Yes, we passed it by in our excitement in finding this planet."

Dr Travers took that in before continuing, "Well, it was a hard life there and eventually…" He thought to the actions he had taken with the base years ago. There should be nothing left, just a 'back up' substrate hidden beneath the cold surface. One can never be too careful.

"Eventually it failed and there can't be much trace of it left, storms on the surface being what they are."

Liara interrupted, "But there's no sign of any of this, we scanned the surface of this planet. There are only those old ruins."

Taking a moment to gather his thoughts, he decided on a different approach, "Yes, there aren't. There is a reason for that Dr.T'Soni. One that is a rather touchy subject for me...and humanity." He paused a moment.

"Tell you what, you tell me why nearly thirty thousand individuals of different races showed up on Earth and I will tell you why there's nothing but ancient ruins left of the natives." He met Liara's gaze but his face was neutral.

As she began, Liara got the strange feeling that she was bartering, a feeling that she didn't particularly enjoy, "Yes, well, I suppose that is fair."

Bringing up her Omni-tool, she brought up the image of the machines that had destroyed everything any of them knew, "We are here because of these - the Reapers."

The strange shape of the ancient machine rotated slowly as Dr Travers took in every detail.

"Best we can understand, they are an ancient race of machines that sweep through the known galaxy roughly every 50,000 years, clearing it of life that has advanced past a certain technological point." She dropped her arm, a lump in her throat as she remembered some of the horrors she had seen in the past few years.

"We are refugees Dr. Travers, as far as we know, the last group of our races that still survive. We ran from these monsters into the unknown and were ecstatic when we found this planet...Earth. That is why we are here, we now have nowhere else to go." Liara felt drained after that, everyone knew it but no one spoke it out loud. The experience was taxing for the young archeologist.

"Garden worlds are few and far between. All of those known before the Reaper invasion were well within the reach of those machines, so we left. A number of all of our races left on a journey that we'd have never attempted before." All three of them seemed more somber when hearing Liara describe their situation out loud.

Garrus gathered himself before stepping next to Liara, "A seemingly uninhabited garden world so far from the Reapers was the perfect opportunity for us. Now though, it seems that it IS inhabited. Or at least was."

His hands wandered into position that would allow the fastest draw on his rifle, "We don't know if what you claim is true 'Doctor Keil Travers' but if it is and you're not Reaper tech that means you're either hiding somewhere and this is all a show or you're an AI."

With that statement Garrus drew his rifle and held it in a low ready position, "Is that why there are no humans left? You killed them all and then cleaned up?!"

If Dr. Travers had been organic, Garrus would have seen his face flash surprise at the eerily close accusation the Turian had just made. As he was now however, the image of him simply observed and waited until Garrus had finished.

Seeing the three aliens seemed to be waiting for the answer, he gave them one, "AI? Oddly enough, no, that subject never interested me after college. No, I am no AI. I had, and can if I want - have, a physical body. Organic and squishy just like mom gave me. If I so choose, I can also have a mechanical form."

This did little to assure Garrus and now Tali and Liara chose to back away from the device as well.

"You see, I am...well, my physical form was digitized. I am not artificial so you can put your fears to rest." Dr. Travers' image clasped his hands behind his back as he prepared his next few surprises.

Tali cut in quickly, "You mean to tell me that you digitized yourself? How? To what extent?"

A smile crept onto Dr Travers' face, "The means of digitizing myself and my fellow humans stands before you. These monoliths, and the dusty substance your group uncovered a small time ago - that's what tipped me off to your presence by the way - is made up of machinery that ranges from the nano-scale up to roughly the scale of an average living cell."

Turning to look at each of them in turn, he continued, "As to what extent? The entire human race is preserved in this digital space. The machines also serve as a distributed computing matrix."

Liara looked at Tali and Garrus with a worried look. She did not like the idea of an entire race wiping itself out. She liked the idea of digitizing that race even less, something about losing her physical form did not fit with her beliefs and view of the world.

That and that is almost exactly what the Reapers had professed they were going to do. It had been revealed through bits and pieces of intel from indoctrinated individuals as well as Reapers themselves the machines sought to 'preserve' their races. That they would ascend to a higher state of being. It sounds good but no one who went into a Reaper to be 'ascended' ever came back.

Looking back at the monolith she noticed that Dr. Travers had just said something that seemed to have horrified Garrus and Tali, "I'm sorry, what was that last part?"

Their heads snapped to Liara before Dr. Travers repeated himself, "Lost in thought huh? Well I had just said that there is a layer of this computing/nanobot substrate averaging three meters almost evenly distributed across the globe."

Garrus had his rifle out now, his face angry, "NO! The last sentence you said, about humanity!"

A confused look spread on Dr. Travers' face, "What was wrong with me saying that Humanity had ascended to a higher state of being? Too grandiose?"

Tali had already distanced herself from the monolith, in fact, she had nearly left the area before typing frantically into her Omni-tool.

The horror of what she had just heard threw Liara into a fit. Her entire life, her entire civilization had been destroyed by machines attempting exactly what this human had just explained.

"The Reapers, those machines we told you about that chased us away from everything and everyone we knew and loved? They are slaughtering our races for that exact reason. To 'preserve' us and through that we would ascend."

Her words were now coming out of clenched teeth as she began to glow blue. Garrus had backed up with Tali and Liara was now pacing a few meters from the monolith, "You're just like them, you're some machine-organic...THING! That murders just so you can 'preserve'."

Her biotics flared as she put her anger into a biotic push. The monolith's surface seemed to shimmer for a moment as the image of Dr. Travers flickered indistinct for a moment. Seeing the effect the push had on the device, she continued berating the image as she built up her next biotic attack.

"Have you ever thought we don't want to be preserved?! We want to live our lives you goddess-damned BASTARDS!" With her last word, she saw the blue flicker of Tali's overload hit the surface before on reflex, she threw the most powerful warp she could at it.

The effect was immediate, the image of Dr. Travers disappeared as a flurry of images and textures came and went in a flurry of motion and sound. Liara regarded it with disgust as flung a biotic push at the monolith. The combination of the warp, overload, and now the push igniting an enhanced biotic explosion. There was a blue flash and the wall of pressure threw Liara off her feet and she hit the ground, sliding almost to Tali's feet.

Only a half a meter of the base was left of it, the images and changes still flashing by even faster across the strange material. Tali went to help Liara up only for the angry Asari to suddenly spring up. Glowing blue, she floated to where she had been and with an anger and anguish filled scream began to throw warp after warp into the remainder of the monolith.

Her screams were punctuated by the impacts and detonations of the warps, each one destroying more of the twenty seconds her arms worked back and forth as she had unleashed more biotic attacks than she had in any day while fighting the Reapers. She dropped to the ground after the seventeenth warp, leaning against the outward push of the forces she was throwing at the object.

Tali and Garrus simply watched the scene unfold, unsure of how to get involved when Liara's scream finally tapered out. With her breath spent, her biotic amp nearly burning her, and her nose bleeding she finally collapsed at the edge of the large crater where the strange monolith had sat.

Garrus rushed up to her, "Grab her other arm, we've got to get back and let the Council know what happened here. What we found out."

With both of them shooting furtive glances at the crater, the two of them carried Liara off in a rush towards the nearest encampment.

Their peaceful little settlement on what had seemed to be the perfect planet suddenly seemed much more hostile.

* * *

 **Author's Note - So there that is! Was going to put more in but then this single chapter might have very well exceeded the length of the story and i decided against doing that after I had doubled the word count on my first story.**

 **This has been a particuarly slow updating story since it was something I came up with to help spur on my first story. I haven't given up on this one but there is less interest in it.**

 **Still, I hope it's kept you entertained! *raises glass* Cheers!**


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